The Amulet

Dean's eyes were intent on Lauren as he glanced from the laptop screen to her face. The newspaper headline read, "Baby Orphaned After Home Fire".

Lauren sighed, "You guys will think I'm crazy."

Sam looked at her sympathetically, "Lauren, in this line of work, nothing's crazy anymore."

Lauren ran her fingers through her hair and began to slowly pace the floor. "After Angel died, I started having these nightmares all the time. First, they were just about what happened to Angel: Meg, the knife, the fire, that sort of thing. But then the dreams changed. There was still a fire, but it wasn't in the stable, it was somewhere else."

"Where?" Sam asked.

"I wasn't sure," Lauren answered. And there were other people, but I didn't recognize them. I thought it was just because of everything that was going on, my brain's way of reacting to it all. Then Dean found me here, and later said that I was saying Mom and Dad in my sleep. It didn't make sense to me, because my parents didn't die in a fire."

"Your adoptive parents didn't die in a fire," Dean reminded her.

"Exactly," Lauren said. "My biological parents had given me up for adoption. I'd tried to find them years ago, but all the records were sealed. I got nowhere then, so I'd given up. It wasn't until now that I really thought I should pursue it again. I just want all of this to be over, and the nightmares to stop. They're getting more intense and I don't know what they mean."

"What happens in your dreams Lauren?" Sam asked.

"Well, it's like when the demon came for Angel when she was a baby," she said quietly. "There's a baby in this crib and the baby's mother comes in and gets pinned to the ceiling, the dad comes in to see what's going on, the whole place catches fire and they all die. Except now I'm not so sure."

"Not so sure about what?" Dean asked.

"That they all die. Because the baby in that picture? It's me," she said finally. Dean and Sam's eyes widened. "Apparently, my parents, my real parents didn't put me up for adoption. They were killed in a fire. A fire that I survived, but nobody knows how. I was six months old, to the day," she said, her eyes settling on Dean, knowing the significance.

"But, you don't have…" Sam began.

"I had an older brother," she continued. "He would have been four or five when our parents died if he had survived the fire that happened on his own six month birthday. I'm still trying to piece it all together really. I think the demon assumed I had abilities too and came for me. Maybe he spared me when he realized I didn't have any, but why would he kill my parents then?" she wondered out loud, turning to stare out the window.

"What else have you found out?" Dean asked.

"The best I can figure out is that my parents saw something the night my brother died that led them to believe it wasn't your typical fire. Kind of like what your Dad did when your Mom died. They found out the truth and became hunters themselves. They must have given me the amulet for protection after I was born."

"So the amulet in the picture, it's the same one that you gave me?" Dean asked. Sam looked at him curiously.

"Lauren's the one who gave me this, after you went to college, right before Dad managed to split us up," Dean told his brother. Now I know why he wears that thing all the time; it was from her. He had first noticed it when Dean picked him up from school to try to find Dad. Dean showered in it, slept in it and he never, ever took it off. The shape shifter had taken it from him when he assumed Dean's form and Dean took it back after he killed him. What a chick-flick thing to do, keeping it all this time he thought to himself and smiled briefly, then looked up at Lauren again.

"It was in a box of things my adoptive parents had given me when I graduated from high school and moved into my own place. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, but I had gone to a psychic with some friends as a joke one day and she started muttering all this stuff about how it was meant to protect whoever was wearing it from evil and things like that. I didn't believe in this stuff then and it kind of creeped me out, so I stopped wearing it. After what your dad told me when he was trying to split us up, then seeing what that thing had done to you Dean, I realized that it was probably true, and that's why I gave it to you, for protection. According to what the psychic told me, it also protects the wearer from being possessed."

"That would explain why Ellicott wasn't able to get to you when he attacked you at the asylum Dean," Sam said then, still feeling awful about what had happened there that night.

"Yeah," Dean said quietly.

"Look guys, I don't know what this all means, but now you know as much as I do," Lauren said then.

"I'm sorry Lauren, about your parents. This has to have been tough for you to dig up," Sam said, getting up now.

"Thanks Sam," Lauren replied.

"I'm going to hit the shower," Sam said, leaving the room.

"Why didn't you tell me what was going on Lauren?" Dean asked after Sam had left. "With everything we've been through together, don't you know you can tell me anything? Didn't you think you could trust me?"

"Because I was afraid of the truth Dean. I wasn't sure what I was going to find out," Lauren admitted.

"Whatever it is, we can face it together," he said. "Don't keep secrets from me, ok? I can't keep you safe if I don't know what I'm dealing with." He headed into the bathroom for his own shower.

"I'm not the one who needs to be kept safe Dean," Lauren said almost silently after he'd closed the door. She looked at her cell phone sitting on the nightstand about fifteen feet away, bringing it to her hand without moving from where she stood. "You are."

Elements

It still freaked Lauren out that she could move things with her mind sometimes. She walked outside with her cell phone and looked over her shoulder to make sure she was alone when she dialed the number.

"Hey, it's me," she said. "I'm afraid there's been a complication. They found the link to the amulet. I guess Sam hacked into my old web searches and found the newspaper article from the fire."

"That does complicate things, what did you tell them?"

"I told them the truth, what I found out about my parents, the fire, my brother, where I got the amulet, but that's it," Lauren responded.

"Lauren, you know if Dean finds out what's going on here, it will ruin everything. He won't stand for it."

"John, I hate lying to him, not telling him everything we've found out."

"I know, but you're doing it to protect him. He loves you, and if he knows what a risk this is, there's no way he's going to see it through and then he and Sam both will probably die," John replied. "How are things coming with your newfound gift? Have you been practicing?"

"Yeah, 'use the Force Luke'," she said sarcastically. "I'm such a freak!"

"You're not a freak," John reassured her. He hesitated. "Lauren, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done, everything you're doing for my boys."

"I don't have a choice John. That bastard killed my parents, my brother, Mary, and who knows how many others? And his daughter, she took my little girl. I know it's not Christian-like to want revenge and all, but how long is God going to put up with this crap?" Lauren asked.

"From what we've read, not much longer," John replied. "Not much longer at all."

"I'm not ready John," Lauren said, fear taking over her voice.

"Lauren, you're the strongest woman I know. You'll be ready when the time comes. I'd give anything to be able to take this burden from you. I know how much you hate lying to him. Maybe this is a bad idea," John's voice cracked a little through the phone line.

"John, it's never going to end unless we end it. You know that," Lauren said

"I know. I just wish there was another way. You'd better go now before Dean discovers you're talking to me."

"Dean? Dean's not the problem; that man spends more time in the shower and preening himself in front of the mirror than I do. I think he should have been born a woman. Sam might be about done though. I'll be in touch," she said as she clicked her phone closed.

She walked back into the motel room. Five minutes later, steam preceded Dean's entrance into the main living area.

"Hey," Dean said, "I'm sorry about earlier. I still wish you would have talked to me about this."

"I was scared Dean, that's all," she replied.

He smiled then, changing the subject, "Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

"Notice what?" Lauren asked.

"That you'd moved the ring from hanging on your necklace to back on your finger where it belongs," he said, taking her left hand in his right and kissing it just below the ring, "I would have asked you again properly if I'd known you were ready to wear it again," he said. "I didn't want to push."

"And that's exactly why I'm ready to wear it again, because you didn't push," she smiled. "Thank you, again, for not giving up on me Dean."

"Never," he said with a smile. "I told you I knew you still loved me."

"Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?"

"Sure of us," he offered.

"Did you save me any hot water? I'm the one who went for a run this morning," she teased him.

"Mmmmm, I like a sweaty woman," Dean said in a low voice, arching his eyebrows at her flirtatiously.

"Is that a line?" she smiled back.

Dean's response was a simple grin.

"How about I give you a reason to need another shower?" she smiled.

0000000000

"Hey Dean," Sam called his brother over to the table he was sitting at in a dive somewhere outside of Louisville.

Dean walked over to join Sam. "What is it?"

"I think I found a weakness for the demon," Sam said, looking up at his brother, who was too busy staring at Lauren on the other side of the bar near the pool tables. "Dean, will you pay attention please?"

"I hate that. She's as good at pumping men for information as I am the ladies. Come on! There's no way she has to get that close to him," Dean said.

"You two crack me up. There's no way in hell either one of you would do anything with someone else, yet when one of you is working the job, the other's all squirrelly about it."

Dean looked at Sam. "Squirrelly? There's nothing squirrelly about me Sam. Handsome? Yes. Awesome brother? Yes. Squirrelly? No. I don't do squirrelly Sam."

"Whatever, will you just pay attention?" Sam said. Dean looked at the old book he was pointing at. "It says here that the fire demon's weakness is a combination of three elements. When all three of these elements come together, the demon will be trapped and completely destroyed!"

"What? We have the Colt, we don't need any elements," Dean said, a little annoyed, glancing back over to where Lauren was flashing that trademark smile of hers at a rough looking young man. "Hey, is that her ass? That skirt is way too short! She never wears that skirt when we're out. When did she get that skirt anyway?" The man put his hand on Lauren's shoulder and started playing with her hair. Dean's hackles were rising now. "If he touches her again,"

"Dean, relax! Lauren knows how to handle herself. She's fine, let it go," Sam chuckled. "So what do you think?"

"About what?"

"About the elements?" Sam asked, exasperated.

"I suppose a backup plan isn't a bad idea. What are these elements?" Dean asked.

"It doesn't say, just that all three together will destroy the demon," Sam answered.

"Well that's helpful Einstein, thanks!" Dean rolled his eyes as Sam shut the book with a thud.

Lauren winked at her newfound friend as he left the bar, walking past Sam and Dean as he did so. Dean gave him a dirty look, and then gave Lauren an obviously fake smile as she joined them at the table.

"So what did you find out?" he asked.

"Nothing, I came up dry," she frowned.

"Came up dry? In that outfit?" Dean practically shouted.

Lauren smiled, reaching into her bra and pulling out a cocktail napkin. "Bingo!" she winked at Dean. "Let's go."

Dean huffed in disgust, "I hate it when she does that," he said, following Lauren out to the car. Sam just laughed.

"Vampires? You're kidding me right?" Sam asked when they got back to the motel. He had already packed his bag and was now in Dean and Lauren's room.

"Nope, I don't kid about vampires Sammy," Lauren said matter-of-factly.

"God, now you're calling me that?" Sam said, rolling his eyes. Lauren grinned. "It's almost sick how much you enjoy this job, you know that?" Lauren's eyes got bigger and lit up with a smile as she was packing up her things.

"I've said it before, I'll say it again," Dean remarked. "Vampires. Get's funnier every damn time I hear it," he shook his head. "Pop quiz, Queen of the Damned, what's the best way to kill a vampire?"

"Only one way," Lauren replied, slipping a machete into a custom holder on a utility type belt she'd made up for herself over the last few months. "Decapitation," she said, smiling. "Let's go," she called over her shoulder as she headed outside.

"God I love that woman," Dean sighed.

0000000000

Dean sat up in bed one morning to find Lauren sitting in a chair, looking out the window of their motel room which faced a small pond. "Lauren?" he said cautiously. "What's wrong?" She didn't answer.

He got out of bed and walked over quietly to where Lauren was sitting. She was shaking her head no, her knees were pulled up to her chest, tears were streaming silently down her cheeks, and she was whispering to someone unseen, "It's too soon. I'm not ready, I can't.

"Lauren, it's ok, it's me," he said, kneeling down beside the chair. He reached out to touch her shoulder, pulling it back quickly. She was burning up. "Sam!" he yelled as she collapsed against him unconscious.